The place I go to for medical care is part of a chain of low income clinics and it's actually good considering the abysmal state of healthcare in the US. Mine keeps sending me texts every few days and has fliers up around town about select days this month where they're giving free flu shots.

This is fine and I appreciate that they do it but nowhere is any mention of Covid! It's like it doesn't exist. But a Covid vaccine is what I really want. I want a flu shot too, but I'm much more worried about spreading Covid or getting long Covid, which terrifies me since I already deal with health issues like what long Covid causes. So I guess I'll have to call and see if they even are giving Covid vaccines at all and if they are also free like the flu shots they're advertising or if I'll have to pay for the vaccine for the virus that's still causing a pandemic no one talks about.

I'm posting this here because I'm not sure which Covid vaccine I should be asking for, and hexbear seems like the only place left that still takes this seriously. I saw in a comment here a little while back about how we should be asking for one vaccine in particular that works better for the more recent variants and making sure we aren't getting an obsolete vaccine. So what should I be asking for when I call to find out if they even offer it during their flu clinic days?

Edit: I just called them and they said no they don't even have any of the Covid vaccine and I'd have to ask my doctor at my next appointment about getting one in the future if I want to get it through the clinic. Fucking useless. Why do a vaccine drive at all if you're not going to include the one that is causing magnitudes more harm than the flu?

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[–] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Any vax is better than no vax. Someone may have better advice re:variants, but I personally went with the Novavax this time because the mRNA vaxxes have hit me particularly hard in the past and left me with swollen lymphnodes for weeks after. (I previously used Pfizer. Moderna is supposed to hit even harder.) Novavax did not do that; I was a little tired the next day, but otherwise fine. Different people react differently. Ymmv.

If you can't find it for free, costco has it for members for $140. If you need to buy a membership, it's $65. you'll pay a few extra bucks than the standard $202 price, but you'll have a membership and get the discount next time if you time it right. If you're a veteran sign up through govx.com and you'll get a $20 Costco gift card.

[–] isa41@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

None of the vaccines I've had in the past, which I think were mostly pfizer, were too bad as far as how I reacted to them. I'm not too concerned about how hard each hits, so long as it's temporary. I just want the one that is most effective right now for the variants that are out now. I should have paid closer attention when I saw it, but I remember in a thread here someone was talking about making sure which one you were getting, and even asking the nurse or whoever was doing the shot to show you the label on the container to make sure.

I'll have to check to see, but I would really hope my clinic would be able to get it for me for less than $202 or $140 if I do have to pay since I'm on the state healthcare plan, but I don't know. Even $140 sounds absurd to me. I'm not a veteran but thanks for the information.

[–] TheModerateTankie@hexbear.net 4 points 1 day ago

Your insurance should cover the shot, but there are no more free covid shots for anyone without insurance which is probably why no one advertises them.

I've heard of other countries using older vaccines, but all the ones available in the US should be the latest. Older vaccines should be past the expiration date at this point.

A lot of people recommend Novavax, as it uses different tech and seems to last a little bit longer that mrna shots, and with less side effects, but it's also harder to get for whatever reason. I've only had moderna, and it's knocked me on my ass for about two days every time.